My current loaner road bike – JD’s Campagnolo beastie. It has just 14 gears and likes to go fast. (Oh, and a giant statue of an eagle)
Tag: bikes
Another ride up to Whiteman’s Gap, but without the hike up Ha Ling afterwards. It was cold (well, not really cold in the scheme of things for the Rockies, but cold after the nice 20oC temperatures I’ve become accustomed to), and raining as I cycled into the cloud. This left the dirt road lovely and muddy.
This photo was taken at the top, looking away from town across the dam. It takes just under an hour to bike here from home.
And it only takes about 15 minutes to get from Whiteman’s Gap back down to town. I can’t guarantee you’ll be clean afterwards though. Or that your camera will be dry after taking it out in the rain for the earlier photo.
Categories
on the rise
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with an exhilarating account of Megan’s ascent of Ha Ling Peak.
Bike rests at the pass (note water crackers in drink bottle holder)
The cycle from home, through town, and up the hill to the pass between Mt Lawrence Grassi and Mt Rundle went something like this:
(click to embiggen)
Then the bike was hidden in the trees, and bike shoes were switched for Chaco sandals. And the hike went something like this:
The summit of Ha Ling is at 2407 metres (7897ft), so an elevation gain of 700 metres for the hike, or 1.1km if you count it all the way from cycling through town. Basically, it was high enough for the intermittent rain to turn up as snow just as I arrived at the summit (while I was quite warm in shorts and a t-shirt down in the valley).
After some summit photos and snacks, I trotted back down the hill again, singing along to the songs in my newly created adventuring soundtrack…
I’m burning through the skies Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man of you
(Queen are fun – although I’m not sure how much sense some of the lyrics make, particularly that one about a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva).
Back down from the hiking, I collect my bike and just after taking this photo, realise my wallet is not in my pack. This was nearly the sad tale of a wallet lost somewhere on the wilds of Ha Ling Peak, but instead is the feel-good story of a lost wallet found by someone and handed in to a passing Park Ranger, who in turn got the wallet back to its owner.
Thanks for that Tom. After the weather, we’ll be coming back to you with more hard hitting news from the Yukon.
Friday was supposed to be a climbing day, but a sick climbing partner meant that instead I lazed around the house for hours, then eventually took my bike out for a ride to the Nordic Centre, where all the madness of the 24 hours of Adrenaline was just beginning.
My bike narrowly avoids falling off the cliff as it admires the view out across the Bow River and Canmore from near the Nordic Centre
It’s too easy sometimes to be overcome by inertia and stay in the house, but as soon as you leave you wonder what on earth you were doing sitting inside, and then have trouble making yourself turn around for home. Half the cars round town seemed to have 2 or 3 bikes strapped to them, and the Nordic Centre was rapidly becoming covered in bikes, tents and shade shelters. It would have been tempting to enter the event, but for the fact it was also the World Solo 24 hour Championships, team entry cost $750, and it tends to sell out within a couple of days anyway – I just wasn’t fanatical or fit enough. I miss all the more casual MTB enduro events round in Australia though, and the dirt crits in Melbourne. It’s a pity there aren’t more bike events around here (or are there, and I just haven’t been able to find out about them?).
Categories
surly
Well the planning is in motion for cycle touring round Europe for a few months next year. There’s a vague plan of the first couple of weeks of June cycling round Hokkaido in Japan, and then on to drop off extra luggage in Ireland, then ferry to France, and away. I’ve been trying to work out which of my bikes to take – the road bike, the Green Giant:
the mountain bike, the Blue Giant (with slicks on):
or some weird combination thereof, or maybe going single speed?
But yesterday I had an epiphany and instead I’m probably going to sell my road bike and buy a Surly Long Haul Trucker (or something similar, probably Surly though). With it’s nice steel frame and general suitability for touring it should be perfect for the job – with the added benefit that I can actually get one that will fit me, unlike the Green Giant, which has always been a bit on the large size.
I’d also stumbled across Epic Designs, all sorts of exciting bike bags and bits, made by Epic Eric. I’ve currently got a set of rear panniers, but a triangle bag with a gas tank probably wouldn’t go astray for creating some extra room (and I’ve fallen in love with the idea of the gas tank – all of my food within easy snacking reach… if it wasn’t too warm I’d contemplate just filling the thing with M&Ms…. yes, I might just have to do that).
Anyone want to buy my old road bike? $550, it’s a bargain. Look, the tyres even match the bar tape!